Ithaca youth choir artistic director hands over baton

Janet Galvan, founder of the Ithaca Children and Youth Chorus, is not retiring

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Janet Galvan, artistic director of Ithaca Children's Choir for 30 years, demonstrates a piece of music before a performance at Ithaca's Temple Beth-El on May 5.(Photo: NICK REYNOLDS / Staff Photo)Buy Photo

She has stood on rostrums from Carnegie Hall to Heinz Hall, conducting groups from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to the Madrid Chamber Orchestra over the years, and traveled all over the world, performing on some of the most revered stages in music.

Recently, though, Janet Galván, director of choral activities at Ithaca College, could be found in the basement of Temple Beth-El in Ithaca in front of a chorus of high school students, twirling among the group as they warmed up for a performance at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the temple.

She paused, no piano in sight, and banged out a note on her cellphone, singing in tune with it. “Even without the piano, you should be hitting these notes,” she called out to the group.

It’s been a familiar sight on Monday afternoons at the Community School of Music and the Arts for three decades: Galván’s arms raised and, in response, several dozen voices rising in regimented, orchestral harmony.

On Tuesday, it will all come to an end as Galván, founder of the Ithaca Children and Youth Chorus, steps down as artistic director. She won’t be slowing down anytime soon, she said, but after 30 years, it’s time to move on to something new.

“Don’t use the word ‘retiring’ for me … if anybody sees that, my students will freak out.”

Janet Galvan

“One of the problems in our society is the issue of knowing when to let go of things,” Galván said. “Once you start doing something, it’s very difficult to walk away. You feel like you’re letting somebody down. But it’s time for me. There are other things I want to do, scores I want to complete, places to travel ...

“But I’m not anywhere close to retiring,” Galván was quick to say. “Don’t use the word ‘retiring’ for me … if anybody sees that, my students will freak out.”

Galván’s ambition is what led her to create the children’s choir within her first three years of moving to the area. Since she was in the fourth grade, Galván always had dreams of being a conductor. By the time she arrived at Ithaca College in 1983, she was well on her way. But she always had dreams of teaching, to “create beauty and inspire her students just be better people,” she said. In 1986, she got her chance.

What she inherited was a group two piano teachers had put together of about 10 kids. By spring of 1986, through recruitment and selling the program, Galván grew the group to 25. Word spread, and by 1987, the numbers had doubled.

“When I first got to Ithaca, I thought it would be really nice to have a really quality children’s choir in town,” Galván said. “Something happened where somebody needed a children’s choir to sing, as I was thinking about starting one, and just around that time, I heard there was a children’s choir in town. Then (I) got a call from Mary (Kane), at that time the executive director of CSMA, who said she had a student that would like to lead a children’s choir. So I said, ‘No, I would like to do it.’

“People heard that we were doing some really cool things,” Galván said. “Honestly, young people love to sing, and I gave them high-quality music — not just classical — but folk tunes, multicultural music, everything. They loved that variety.”

Bringing a serious director’s approach to the program, Galván was demanding of her students.

“Young people are starving for someone to ask for their best,” Galván said, and over the years, her students have endearingly referred to her as the only irrational person in the rehearsal space. Ultimately, her unapologetic pursuit toward perfection was the thing that kept the students coming back.

Choir member Bretana Turkon, now a freshman musical theater student at Ithaca College, said she came back each week to keep learning. "We only had an hour and a half each week to learn the songs, so we had to cram a lot in there."

The chorus quickly gained exposure, singing at community events, a regular slot at the Ithaca farmers market and all over the state. Then in 1988, while Galván was presenting at the New York State Musical Association summer workshop, she was introduced to a woman who would take the chorus even further. In 1991, Galván and her chorus were invited to Carnegie Hall in New York City.

The chorus began to travel internationally, taking trips to Spain, Italy and Montreal, among other places. But it was one trip, to the Carolinas and a former retreat of Martin Luther King Jr., where Galván was inspired to bring a new focus to the choir.

She hired the De Gullah Singers, a group from near Charleston, South Carolina, for a performance on Wadmalaw Island, a former home to West African slaves brought from their homeland, where the West African musical tradition was passed on into North America. She was inspired to bring something new to the repertoire, incorporating multicultural elements into their catalog and using that music to inspire social change.

She said the songs she selects have a poetry to them, each representing the perspectives of dozens of cultures. They lead her to emphasize the cultural context of each piece, understanding the differences between different people and how they live. The text is important for helping her chorus connect to the music, for not only appreciating the poetry of the words but the meaning behind them.

"We spent a lot of time learning what the text of the songs meant so we as an ensemble could invite the audience into that, to allow them to experience that with us," Turkon said.

“Sometimes the world is a mess,” Galván said. “But for 30 minutes, we’re going to make our corner of the world better.”

Galván’s chorus won’t be silenced when she leaves. It took her years to find an artistic director who could handle the gig, she said, but she finally found one in composer and Ithaca College faculty member Kathleen Ballantyne.

Though confident her legacy will continue to inspire the chorus to succeed at the next level, 30 years under the watch of a single person leaves quite the impression.

“She won’t say it, but I will,” said Howard Erlich, a parent of a former member of the choir. “She’s irreplaceable.”